It made me sad to see that even beneath the protective plastic, in just two short years, the pencil markings were fading, corners were curling, and I had even ripped a few artifacts trying to maneuver them into place. Who knows if these will weather the next five years? Ten years? Long enough to show her children?
I had to make some painful decisions about what went into the scrapbook due to the restriction of a three inch scrapbook binding. Deciding which fish picture was the "keeper" or which handwriting sample was the most fun to revisit was uncomfortable, at best. These are decisions that I had to make, however as I envisioned one scrapbook for each child for each grade level taking over my entire living room. Oh how I treasured each of those relics I put in the recycle bin. Some items I could not keep for sanitary reasons like the macaroni necklace. Some items I could not keep for space reasons, like the body tracing complete with googly eyes and yarn hair. Those are now just sweet memories.
Her scrapbook is also lacking Audrey's laugh, her Kindergarten songs, and how she could not possibly sing the Monkey's on the Bed counting song without pursing her lips and putting her hands on her hips during the "Doctor said" part. Her voice would also drop at least two octaves. But there was no real way to throw that under protective plastic either.
There is one copy of this book. I would like to think I will give it to her one day, but that makes me nervous as well. Then I don't get to enjoy it. Or what if something happens to this copy? There's no backup, no re-do.
It is for these reasons and countless others that I encourage the use of e-portfolios in My Big Campus. Imagine having the ability to bundle any artifacts and document the development of your child or student over the span of his/her educational career. In one place, the tracings of the alphabet all the way through the historical essay in the eleventh grade...and everything in between! With an e-portfolio MBC bundle, you can add photographs, audio, and video- and then rearrange it all with a few quick drag and drops. Because there is unlimited storage space, there is no need to make stressful decisions about what to keep. Best of all, these can be copied, shared, and admired by as many people as you want asynchronously.
